As the subject says: I'm fucking done with this game. I've been playing RPGs (and, for that matter, D&D) for nearly thirty years, and I was *so* excited for this to come out. Hell, I even purchased it pretty early in EA just because I wanted to see what Larian would do with it. I didn't play *much* of it, then, because there were some major bugs and technical shortcomings that ruined the experience for me--but that's fine: it was in early access; I knew to expect ample flaws, unbalanced encounters, and so forth.
I was MAD psyched for the full version to release--and for the first fifteen hours or so, I absolutely loved it. Until I began to realize how fucking horrible the combat was.
I love the story. I love the characters. I love everything about this game *but* the combat, and it utterly ruins the experience because even though I try to avoid combat as much as possible, apparently a pacifist/stealth run simply isn't possible--which I find hilarious since Larian has been bragging about the "endless" potential ways of playing. Bullshit.
The "Balanced" difficulty is INCREDIBLY UNbalanced. I have a level 5, well-balanced party, and I still get my shit kicked in 9 out of 10 times. I'm really experienced in turn-based RPGs, and have been known to take waaaaaaaaaaay too much time planning multiple moves ahead as if I'm playing chess. But no matter what I do, no matter what character I use or how heavily kitted-out they are, I get party wiped because every goddamned enemy even *one* level higher than my party one-shots any of them. I'm mainly thinking of those fucking gnolls and githyanki.
So I dropped the difficulty to the lowest setting and guess what? Same results. Literally, same results. My attacks do 2 damage, the enemy's does 10. Oh, and they each have *three* fucking attacks per turn to my *1*. What the hell? I don't know if it's because of this "karmic dice" horseshit (turning it off doesn't seem to make any difference) or something I'm not getting, but I just don't care enough to find out.
I'm out. I will never purchase another Larian title again.
This game is sufficiently different from D&D that differences can still be felt quite strongly. And yes, Karmic Dice are absolutely a major problem and one that Larian still refuses to speak honestly about beyond just throwing out vague statements about "trusting the dice"...which is absolute BS, Karmic Dice are as much about punishing competent players as they are about helping the inept and in the end they don't feel great for anyone. But the game is worth taking the time to get used to its quirks...after disabling Karmic Dice of course. I think the major difference between BG3 and D&D is realizing that you have to plan or re-shape your builds around the insanely powerful items the game hands out...the kind of stuff that most tabletop D&D DMs would have a stroke over at the mere thought of handing them to a player...that is what Withers is there for and why the game allows respecing which would otherwise be considered sacrilege in D&D. But I digress, D&D is hardly holy...if it was multiclassing would never have been allowed to exist, and it's not the only issue. Still, the game is very good, and it is worth taking the time to get used to.
